“I’m so excited for this,” Young said during a recent phone interview. He’s currently on tour promoting his sophomore album, “Ticket to L.A.,” which dropped back in December.

Though he’s lived in Nashville, Tenn. for a handful of years now, these shows at The Novo are hometown gigs for Young, who was born in Anaheim, raised in Huntington Beach and attended Calvary Chapel High School in Costa Mesa where he played baseball and basketball. He was a pitcher for his high school team and went on to play at Irvine Valley College, Fresno State University and the University of Mississippi, but an elbow injury in 2003 sidelined his hopes to make it to the major leagues and he stuck with music instead.

Brett Young (pictured playing at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles in 2017) will headline three nights at The Novo at L.A. Live in downtown Los Angeles March 23-25. (File photo by Rachel Luna, Orange County Register/SCNG)

Country singer-songwriter Brett Young will play three hometown shows at The Novo at L.A. Live in downtown Los Angeles March 23-25. (Photo courtesy of Brett Young)

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Brett Young (pictured performing on the Mane Stage at the Stagecoach Country Music Festival in Indio in 2018) will headline three nights at The Novo at L.A. Live in downtown Los Angeles March 23-25. (Photo by Will Lester, The Press-Enterprise/SCNG)

Country singer-songwriter Brett Young will play three hometown shows at The Novo at L.A. Live in downtown Los Angeles March 23-25. (Photo courtesy of Brett Young)

Country singer-songwriter Brett Young will play three hometown shows at The Novo at L.A. Live in downtown Los Angeles March 23-25. (Photo courtesy of Brett Young)

Brett Young (pictured performing at the Stagecoach Country Music Festival in Indio in 2018) will headline three nights at The Novo at L.A. Live in downtown Los Angeles March 23-25. (Photo by Will Lester, Press-Enterprise/SCNG)

Country singer-songwriter Brett Young performs an early day set on the Mane Stage at the Stagecoach County Music Festival in Indio in 2016. Young will headline three nights at The Novo at L.A. Live in downtown Los Angeles March 23-25. (Photo by Michael Mullenix, ZUMA Wire)

Country singer-songwriter Brett Young will play three hometown shows at The Novo at L.A. Live in downtown Los Angeles March 23-25. (Photo by Chapman Baehler)

Brett Young (pictured performing in Atlanta in 2017) will headline three nights at The Novo at L.A. Live in downtown Los Angeles March 23-25. (Photo by Robb Cohen, Associated Press)

He gigged around Southern California for years including having his own little residency on Monday nights at Landmark Steakhouse in Corona del Mar. He then lived in Los Angeles before moving to Nashville to pursue music more seriously and in 2017, dropped his self-titled debut which included the radio hits “Sleep Without You,” “In Case You Didn’t Know,” “Like I Loved You” and “Mercy.” Young has played the Mane Stage at the annual Stagecoach Country Music Festival in Indio twice and opened for acts like Lady Antebellum, Luke Bryan and Thomas Rhett.

A few years ago, he created a bucket list with five venues on it that he wanted to play and as of last month, he can say he’s played them all. His number one was the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles, which he played with Lady Antebellum in 2017. Next on his list was Madison Square Garden in New York, which he did with Bryan last year. He got to play the main stage at the Watershed Music Festival at the Gorge Amphitheatre in Washington and he also played Bridgestone Arena in his new hometown of Nashville with Lady Antebellum as well. Last on his list was Red Rocks Amphitheatre in Colorado, which he sort of, kind of got to play thanks to a special appearance on ABC’s “The Bachelor” last month.

“I mean, I count it,” he said with a laugh though he wasn’t playing to a full audience, but rather an intimate performance for “The Bachelor” Colton Underwood and one of the female contestants in the empty, but still gorgeous amphitheater.

Since he’s from Southern California he said he’d add the Greek Theatre and Dodger Stadium to his new bucket list and that he enjoys returning to the area to play inside the venues he grew up going to. Last year he played Honda Center in Anaheim and The Forum in Inglewood with Rhett and recalled going to several Lakers games at “the Great Western Forum” and eating about “17 hot dogs every game.” Before he took the stage at Honda Center he recalled that the last time he had been there was for a high school basketball tournament against Crossroads School from Santa Monica, which at the time had ex-Clipper Baron Davis and director Cash Warren on the team.

“That was intimidating for a 15-year-old kid,” he said. “To walk back into that venue with your own bus parked outside with your name all over it, that was completely the opposite experience from the last time I was there in such a gratifying way. Those things, yeah, they’re special to me.”

Now, with a second album under his belt, Young said he’s having no problem filling 75-minute headlining sets and he’s honored that his dedicated fan base has taken the time to not only get to know the singles, but learn all the lyrics to the other songs as well.

“Being that I’ve written on most of the songs on both of my records, I think it’s even more flattering as a songwriter to see people sing the ‘deep cuts,’” he said. “Only like four can go to radio, but that doesn’t mean the other 12 or 13 aren’t special or important to me. When people come to the shows by the thousands, they make it obvious really quick that they bought and learned the whole album and that’s really something.”

For the lead single from “Ticket to L.A.,” Young and his team selected “Here Tonight,” a track written by Young, his longtime songwriting cohorts Ben Carver and Justin Ebach, and Lady Antebellum’s Charles Kelley. While on tour with Lady A, Young said he realized that with 56 dates on the jaunt he was going to have to write on the road if he wanted to prep his next album. He flew out Carver and Ebach to join him on his bus and one day, back in catering, Kelley caught the trio working on some material and told them he wanted to join.

“We are all huge fans of Charles so that was an easy decision to let him write with us,” Young said. “The first time we wrote we came up with ‘Here Tonight.’ Charles has such an undeniable voice and it was hard to not have him sing this one because I heard him sing it during the writing, but I’m so honored that I got it.”

Young also worked with one of his idols and friends, singer-songwriter Gavin DeGraw on the song “Chapters.”

“The cool thing about Gavin is how unplanned his life seems to be,” Young said with a laugh, noting that he had been wanting to do a song with DeGraw but didn’t want to overstep their friendship. “I just asked him and he said ‘I’m free this week.’ That’s just kind of how it happened and I didn’t know he was going to be featured on it but he was so down for whatever and it made it really fun. He killed it. I get a little weepy and I get chills when I hear that one because I wrote it about me and my childhood, but I also wrote it with my idol and I get to hear him sing on it. The whole song is just super honest and kind of raw and it’s just a cool moment now, every time.”

He’s not sure if DeGraw will show up to one of The Novo shows to wish him a happy birthday, however, there will be plenty of surprises and a few changes in the set list for the fans that bought tickets to more than one evening.

“We knew there’d be a few repeat offenders,” Young said. “Plans for that are in the works, but I don’t know exactly what it’s going to be. Obviously we’re going to play the singles but there’s so much up in the air right now that it might be as much of a surprise for me as it will be for everyone else.”

Brett Young

With: Adam Hambrick

When: 8 p.m. Saturday, March 23, Sunday, March 24 and Monday, March 25

Where: The Novo at L.A. Live, 800 W. Olympic Bvld., Los Angeles

Tickets: $39.50-$49.50 on March 25 at AXS.com. Select tickets available for March 23-25 for $95.94-$200 at AXS.com.

Kelli Skye Fadroski lives for entertainment. She’s worked at The Orange County Register since 2006 and has covered all things music, stand-up comedy, horror and more. When she’s not out reviewing a concert or interviewing some random famous person, she’s catching up on episodes of 'The Walking Dead,' somewhere sampling craft beer, enjoying Taco Tuesday or yelling at the contestants through the TV on 'Celebrity Name Game' for not knowing basic pop culture trivia. She’s also a diehard Detroit Lions fan.